1539 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1539.

Events

• April – Printing of the Great Bible (The Byble in Englyshe) is completed; it is distributed to churches in England.^[1] Prepared by Myles Coverdale, it contains much material from the Tyndale Bible – unacknowledged as the Tyndale version is officially deemed heretical.
• Unknown dates
  • Game Place House in Great Yarmouth becomes the first place in England to be used regularly as a public theatre.^[2]
  • Marie Dentière writes an open letter to Marguerite of Navarre, sister of King Francis I of France. This Epistre tres utile (very useful letter) calls for an expulsion of Catholic clergy from France.
  • The first printing press in North America is set up in Mexico City. The first known book from it, Manual de Adultos, appears in 1540.^[3]
  • Teseo Ambrogio's Introductio in Chaldaicam lingua, Syriaca atq Armenica, & dece alias linguas, published in Pavia, introduces several Middle Eastern languages to Western Europe for the first time.

New books

Prose

• Robert Estienne – Alphabetum Hebraicum
• Martin Luther – On the Councils and the Church

Poetry

Main article: 1539 in poetry

Births

• February 27 – Franciscus Raphelengius, Flemish-born Dutch scholar, printer and bookseller (died 1597)^[4]
• March 5 – Christoph Pezel, German theologian (died 1604)
• April 12 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish Peruvian mestizo chronicler (died 1616)
• December 5 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (died 1604)
• December 20 – Paulus Melissus, German writer in Latin, translator and composer (died 1602)
• Unknown dates
  • Olivier de Serres, French writer on agriculture and horticulture (died 1619)
  • Jean de Tournes, French author, printer and bookseller (died 1615)
  • Richard White of Basingstoke, English jurist and historian (died 1611)

Deaths

• March 5 – Kaspar Ursinus Velius, German scholar, poet and historian (born c. 1493)
• May 7 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (born 1466)
• July 5 – Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian religious writer, leader of the Counter-reformation and saint (born 1502)^[5]
• July 12 – Ferdinand Columbus, Spanish bibliographer and cosmographer (born 1488)
• August 10 – Lanspergius, German Carthusian monk and ascetic writer (born 1489)
• November 25 – Johann Alexander Brassicanus, German author and teacher (born c. 1500)
• Unknown date – Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, Spanish author of an agricultural treatise (born 1470)